“Carefully hits to the forehead” instead of "Watch your head"? Well, I’m sure I’ve written things like that on occasion myself, and perhaps you have, too. Still, it’s not exactly the king’s English, is it?

In China, such usages are referred to as “Chinglish,” unfortunate turns of phrase created by translators whose eagerness to communicate across language barriers outstrips their abilities to do so (even if their English remains infinitely more adept than my Mandarin). At best, it can be a source of merrymaking; at worst, an embarrassment. What can be done?

Imagine that you carry a small device that can make any nearby surface interactive—and that those surfaces can be manipulated via multitouch gestures and can store data.

“Wouldn’t that be cool?”

The enthusiasm belongs to David Molyneaux, and he is one of several Microsoft Research Cambridge researchers striving to bring this fanciful vision to reality, using interactive, environmentally aware projector systems embedded in handheld devices.

“In the future,” Molyneaux predicts, “we will all have devices we carry around—maybe projectors integrated into mobile phones—that enable us to augment arbitrary surfaces and objects with digital content and relevant information. We will live in a 3-D ‘information space’ where objects, surfaces, and devices around us in the home or office can generate digital information or have it attached. These mobile devices will reveal this information and enable interaction with the information directly.”

Have you heard of Colonel Blotto? Me, neither—at least not until a few days ago, when I ran into my friend and colleague Thore Graepel in the atrium of Building 99 on Microsoft’s Redmond, Wash., campus, worldwide headquarters of Microsoft Research.

Graepel was telling me about Project Waterloo, the initial effort from the nascent Research Games project at Microsoft Research Cambridge. Project Waterloo is a Facebook game designed in the Colonel Blotto style, which means that two players are asked to distribute a finite set of resources over a collection of geographies. The player who has distributed the most resources over each geography is the winner of that one, and the player who wins the most geographies wins the game.

In the case of Project Waterloo, each player is allocated 100 “troops,” to be distributed over five “battlefields.” The player who wins the most battlefields wins the game.

On Oct. 28, Hsiao-Wuen Hon, managing director of Microsoft Research Asia, signed Phase IV of the Ministry of Education of China-Microsoft Memorandum of Understanding, commonly known as the Great Wall Plan. (Pictured above are Hon, left foreground, shaking hands with Shen Yang, deputy director-general of the Ministry of Education's Department of International Cooperation and Exchange.)

The agreement extends Microsoft’s commitment to work with academia in China to advance the state of the art in basic research and to foster the next generation of research leaders.

In conjunction with the signing, I had a chance to talk with Lolan Song, Microsoft Research Asia senior director of Microsoft Research Connections, to learn more about the Great Wall Plan, which began in 2002, with previous updates occurring in 2005 and 2008.

This morning, at the Seaport Hotel in Boston, Jennifer Tour Chayes, Microsoft distinguished scientist and managing director of Microsoft Research New England, became one of six recipients of the Leading Women Awards, bestowed by the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.

“It’s a real honor,” Chayes said. “I’m flattered to be considered a role model for these incredible young women.”

The awards ceremony, in its 20th year, is part of the celebration of the Girl Scouts’ 100th anniversary.

“Each year, Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts honors select female leaders who have made a positive impact in their career and community,” said Ruth N. Bramson, chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. “The Leading Women Awards is a way for our girls to meet great role models like Jennifer and for our supporters to learn how the Girl Scouts organization is creating future women leaders.”